Chance Meeting
by Ilse M Jupnur
Summary: While walking through a graveyard in New York, Buffy makes a connection to a new acquaintance BtVSRent
1. Introductions

Chance Meeting

Chapter 1: Introductions

Timeline: One year after Season 7; Post-Rent

* * *

Buffy made her way through the graveyard that she managed to stumble across. It was her first time in New York and she was still trying to get a feel for everything. Even though she had only been in the city for a few days, she had expected to find some sort of a demonic hotspot by now. All the trouble she read about couldn't be from normal people, could it? 

She shook her head at the thought. There had to be something else around here. Sure, a lot of the crime went to muggings and drug abuse, but she'd read about some mysterious neck traumas. A laugh escaped her as she thought about the terminology. When would people be able to see what was right in front of them? 'They're too busy making up more believable explanations.'

She twirled the wooden stake in her hand with ease as she looked at the passing tombstones. After walking by a few more graves, she gave out a sigh. 'Well, this seems on the up and up. Its good to see that some people have decided to stay dead.'

A cold breeze filled the surrounding air, and Buffy pulled her coat a bit tighter. This weather almost made her miss Sunnyhell. Almost.

After the Hellmouth had closed, she found herself moving from place to place often. As much as she complained about never having a normal life, never having a choice, she felt at home fighting the good fight. Even with the new army of slayers, she couldn't just go back to being normal. It didn't feel right.

She knew that from experience. Once Giles mentioned about the Hellmouth in Cleveland, a part of her backed away. It wasn't time to jump into another war; she just finished one. But her break was short lived due to boredom. She found herself in Cleveland in less than a month.

'What a joke that was.' Upon arrival, Buffy knew that place would never be what Sunnydale was. Demon activity was beyond non-existent. Part of her was glad about that. Nobody should have to deal with all the stuff that happened in Sunnydale. The other part of her knew she couldn't stay there long. She'd get bored and move.

And move she did, right into the heart of New York. 'Alphabet city, what a fun place.' Buffy couldn't believe the living conditions in this area, but it was cheap and the best place to look for anything mysterious and unexplainable. Even with the horrible environment, New York was still better than Cleveland. 'That place was about as interesting as Andrew talking about… Well just Andrew talking.'

She was about to give up for the night when she spotted a camera that was lying on the path. "Speaking of Andrew."

Her voice stirred the attention of a man sitting by a nearby grave. 'Obviously the owner of the camera.' She gave him an apologetic look. "I'm sorry, I didn't think anybody would be out here this late."

He gave her a small smile in return. Buffy picked up the camera and handed it to him as she took a seat on the ground. "Maybe you shouldn't leave this in the middle of the path."

"I didn't think anybody would be out here this late."

His grin widened and Buffy took the time to look over the man. He had short blond hair, piercing blue eyes that seemed to be hiding behind thick black glasses, and a small frame. Overall, it gave him a dorky appearance, but it worked for him. She could easily describe him as cute. 'And that goofy smile…'

She shook the thought out of her head, bringing her back to the here and now. "I'm Buffy Summers."

"Mark Cohen."

The two sat in silence for a while. "A friend of yours?"

Mark took a moment before he answered, keeping his eyes on the grave. "She was family."

Buffy nodded. She knew what it was like to deal with a loss like this. She wished she didn't, but that's life. A dim light appeared on the ground and Buffy looked up to see the Sun appearing on the horizon. She must have spent more time out tonight than she thought.

Her gaze then went to Mark. She just met him, but a connection had already formed in her mind. Loss could do that; it pulls people together. 'Maybe that's its purpose.'

"Common, let's get some breakfast. My treat." She stood up and offered her hand to Mark. The smile came back on his face.

'I think that smile could grow on me. It actually makes him look quite good. Wait, bad Buffy. You don't even know him.'

"Sounds good."

'Maybe that will change.'

* * *

A/N: I realize the times with Buffy and Rent wouldn't coincide, but hey, give me a break – I just love both stories. I thought it would be nice to have more FanFictions with them together. Just go with me here. 

Reviews appreciated.

Disclaimer: I own nothing. And I'm broke. If you sue, you wouldn't get anything.


	2. Invitations

Chance Meeting

Chapter 2: Invitations

Timeline: One year after Season 7; Post-Rent

* * *

The two made their way out of the graveyard, enjoying the comfortable silence between them. Buffy looked around but saw nothing aside from apartment buildings. 'Great, now where.' Once again she decided to break the silence. "Well, how about you pick the place. I'm still kind of new here." 

Mark crinkled his face in thought and then shrugged. "The Life Café is pretty good. It makes a great meeting place for everybody around here."

They agreed upon it, and Mark started to lead the way. "So, why were you hanging around the graveyard at night?" Buffy knew that question would pop up. That still didn't mean she had an answer to it however. If she answered she was visiting, she would be asked who. Then her story could easily be disproved. She gave off a moment of hesitation as she formulated a decent response. "Um, it gives me a place to think." 'Lame, but it'll do for now.' She took in the look of disbelief he gave her, but was glad that he didn't pursue it with further questions.

As they walked in, Buffy noticed the host of the café's face turn from welcoming to very annoyed in a matter of seconds. "Please not today. We just had a few very important people arrive, and we don't need you people causing another mess. Just please go."

It took all of her energy to hold back a huge smile and the laugh threatening to escape behind it. After a beat, Mark walked up to the irritated worker. "Look, its just the two of us. We'll be good today. No outbursts. I promise." He flashed a smile, tapped his hand on the host's podium, and walked in the restaurant finding his own table, not bothering to wait to be seated.

Buffy sat in the seat across from Mark and finally let out the laugh that she was containing. "It seems you're well liked here." That goofy smile appeared on his face, and she just watched as he went into a flashback of his own. "Well, some people just don't know how to enjoy life." Buffy nodded and gave a smirk. She wished she knew what had gone on here. Whatever it was, it probably made for a very fun time.

"You said you were new here right? Where are you from? And why here if I may ask?" They both shared a laugh at the last question. Buffy was all set with a quick story to answer the questions. She was just a small town girl looking to make it big in the city. The lie would work nicely if it weren't for the nagging feeling of guilt in her stomach. He seemed quite genuine and she wouldn't feel right just flat out lying to him. 'Truth it is. I'll just have to omit a few details.'

A waitress came by, they ordered quickly, and Buffy began her tale. She started with how she had to move from Sunnyh—dale because of that really strange natural disaster. "A sinkhole, who would have thought." Then she said how she traveled around a bit before she found her friends in Cleveland. "They're like my family." And she stopped when she felt the itch to move again and found herself in New York. "I didn't have much money by this time, so I found something in Alphabet city."

At this point, the food came, and conversation was put on the back burner. Moments later, though, Mark chimed in. "Your friends sound really nice. I understand what that's like; my friends are my family as well."

Buffy urged him on, and Mark took over the conversation with stories of his friends. He started with a story from Christmas two years ago. How he'd met Angel. About his ex's protest of Cyberland. Roger and himself fighting with Benny about rent. Maureen and Joanne's disastrous engagement reception. But then he seemed to stop around Christmas of last year. It was the story of Mimi coming back from the brink of death.

The tale made Buffy freeze. She sat there rigid for a moment, feeling shivers through her body, before she became in control of herself again. Thankfully Mark was too involved in telling the story to notice the change in her demeanor. Now was not the time for that conversation. 'I had one of those moments when I died…twice. Yeah, that'd go over real well Buffy.'

The check came and distracted her from her thoughts. She quickly snatched it from the table. Mark was about ready to protest, but Buffy started poking him in the chest playfully. "I said my treat Mister." Flashing a smile his way, she turned and paid the bill.

They walked out together and started the trip to their buildings. "You sound like you have an interesting family here too then. I just wish I could've been here to know Angel. She sounded like one in a billion." Mark smiled and nodded. "He was."

The walk home made her realize just how long she had been up. She covered up a few yawns and kept going when she noticed Mark had stopped. He just gave her a smile and pointed to the building. "This is me. Maybe you could come over sometime… to meet my friends and all. When you're not so tried of course. We're all getting together here tomorrow; perhaps you could come. 9ish?"

He was really trying to be slick about this, she could tell, but it wasn't coming off that way. It was coming off a bit more awkward. 'It's still very cute.'

"Perhaps." She gave him a quick grin and they both parted, Mark to his apartment, and Buffy towards her building.

It was a few steps later when she heard Mark's voice. It wasn't meant for her to hear, but those are the perks to slayer hearing. Leaning with her back against the wall, she listened as he sang a song. Once it was over, she started her walk home again, a new song in her head. It wasn't until the first couple lines that she realized she was singing out loud. She shrugged and continued along.

"There's only now  
There's only here  
Give in to love  
Or live in fear  
No other path  
No other way

No day but today…"

* * *

A/N: Ok, so this is no longer a one shot, which means it's a work in progress. I do have ideas as to what will happen (fear not, there will be a plotline). But I just hope you will understand that I am slightly busy, so I may take some time in between updates. I hope that's ok, and the next chapter will be up whenever I find some more time. 

Thanks so much to all of you who reviewed. As always, reviews are still oh so appreciated. Please leave some.

Disclaimer: I own nothing. I'm just a poor college student. Don't waste your time.


	3. Integration

Chance Meeting

Chapter 3: Integration

* * *

Buffy flew her hand out of the covers and crashed it down on the buzzing alarm clock. 'I hate mornings.' She took a glance at the clock that was surprisingly still intact. 'I hate afternoons.'

Not yet fully awake, Buffy seemed to drift through her morning (or more accurately – afternoon) routine. Stretch, workout, shower, relax, food. Sitting at the counter in her apartment nibbling on a sandwich, she noticed the clock again. 7 o'clock. That was enough time for her to do some walking around before going to Mark's place. With that thought, she grabbed her coat and left.

It was already dark by the time she stepped outside. She decided to do a quick sweep around the back alleys. 'Another uneventful day.' It was around 8:30 when she decided to give up and head for Mark's. She reached the building beside her destination when she heard whimpering.

Turning the corner into another alley to investigate, she saw a young girl surrounded by a group of men. She held her purse out in front of her mumbling different variations of "Just take it" and "Please don't hurt me." Probably just a mugging, but Buffy figured she might as well help out anyways.

"Why don't you guys just scamper off now and I'll reconsider the kicking your ass part of this." When the group turned around, her spidey senses began to go off. Her hand was behind her back, gripping her stake, in an instant.

"Look at this boys. We got ourselves a downright feast tonight." The leader walked right up to Buffy and put on his vamp face. Obviously he was going for the scare as well. She wanted to laugh when his face fell with the realization that fear was not the reaction being given (more like annoyance), but she wanted to get into this fight more. "Well, that was just pathetic."

With that comment, she whirled the stake out from behind her and landed it in his heart. He flew into dust before her, and she caught a glimpse of the rest of the gang coming her way. 'Only 3 of them, this shouldn't be too challenging.' She kicked out her leg towards the knee of the closest vampire. He went down while another charged. 'And so it begins…'

When it was over, a dust cloud surrounded Buffy. She looked over at the girl, now standing, mouth agape, by the dumpster. As Buffy began to reassure her that it was going to be ok, the lady took off without so much of a thank you. "You're welcome." She was used to this response, as it was quite common. 'Talk about thankless jobs.'

The exhilaration from the fight lingered however, and Buffy found herself practically skipping over to what she hoped was the door to Mark's apartment. She knocked and then looked at her watch. 9:15. 'That's fashionably late, right? I never understood all that. More for Cordellia.'

Her thoughts were interrupted by the door sliding open. She stood there looking at a very handsome guy with shaggy blonde hair. "Hi, I was looking for Mark –"

"So, you're Mark's friend he was talking so much about. I'm Roger, his roommate." His voice barely hid the surprise laced in his words. She took a mental note to bring this up if she got a chance to have a conversation with him later. "Hey Marky, your friend…" He looked at her expectantly waiting for her name. She replied and he turned back around. "Hey, Buffy's here. Better hurry your ass up."

He gave her a charming smile and led her in the room to the couch. "I guess I'm left to do introductions until he gets out here." He pointed out Collins and Mimi, who were lounging on the couch, and Maureen and Joanne, who chose to share the chair off to the side. Everyone appeared to have a welcoming look for her. Well everyone but Maureen. That was another thing she would need to address later.

Just as Roger finished his introductions, Mark came bouncing out of his room with a film reel. His cheeks were flushed red. Buffy wasn't exactly sure if it was from running out there so quickly, or from blushing. 'It's really quite an endearing look on him.'

"I wasn't sure if you'd make it or not." He walked over to her, handing the film to Roger, who in turn, just set it on the floor and joined Mimi. There was a brief, awkward moment where Mark contemplated what the appropriate 'hello' gesture would be for their situation. He seemed to be torn, so Buffy decided to take the initiative. She closed the gap between them, and gave him a friendly hug. "I was just a little held up with something. I tried to get here as fast as I could."

After a moment, she broke away from him and took a seat on the floor by the rest of the group. As she did, she caught a glimpse of Maureen, who was currently sizing her up. 'This should be amazing fun.'

Mark glared at Roger, who just shrugged, as he picked the reel off the floor. He shook his head and began fixing it to the projector. "Well, since you couldn't meet Angel, I thought it would be a good idea to show you a little bit about him. It's just a film I made, but he's in it, as well as the rest of us."

He turned off the lights and started up the projector. The title popped up, and she felt his presence next to her. After finishing reading 'A Mark Cohen film', she felt a hand over her own. His hand. A small smile crept on her face as she began to take in the images on the screen.

* * *

A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed. It really means a lot to me. Feel free to keep on reviewing! ;-) The next chapter will probably be up sometime next week. I have a stage combat course in Virginia Beach Fri-Sun, so it might be a little before or little after the weekend. But just check around that time.

And I feel it's only fair to mention Captain Insomnia's story "Anyday But Yesterday". It is amazingly well constructed, and makes for a great read. I really suggest that you all go check it out if you haven't already. You won't be sorry.

Disclaimer: If I owned any of this, would I be spending my time writing FanFiction? Exactly.


	4. Interrogations

Chance Meeting

Chapter 4: Interrogations

* * *

The film ended, and Mark stood up to turn on the lights. Buffy took back her hand and placed it in her other hand on her lap. She then took the time to look around the room. Joanne and Maureen hadn't moved that much from their last position on the chair. Mimi had found her way into Roger's arms sometime during the film. Mark was right, they really made a very cute couple.

She turned behind her to see Collins giving her a smug look. With the silent 'What's that grin for' question coming off her face, he turned his head to look at Mark, who was putting away his film and mumbling about getting his camera. She followed Collins gaze, realized what the smile was all about, and gave him an eye roll in response.

The conversation in the room started to grow. Maureen and Joanne were fighting about a clip on the film. Roger and Mimi were talking about Roger's new song. All the while, Collins and Buffy were participating in a fake fight with the maturity level of middle schoolers.

"So what? There was some hand holding."

"It's more than that."

"More than that? More than that! How can you even make an assumption like that?

"Easily. It's more than that."

"Looky here Mister --"

"Somebody has a crush on Mark --"

"Does not!" "Does." "Does not!" "Does!"

"Ahem..." Buffy turned her head to see Mark standing beside her, eyebrow raised in question. "He started it."

* * *

"So what was that all about?"

Mark and Buffy were sitting at the table drinking some tea. Well, Mark was drinking tea. Buffy was wrinkling up her nose while pretending to drink it. Maureen and Joanne had long since left, Roger went with Mimi to her apartment below them, and Collins headed to his room. Buffy didn't mind; the alone time was nice as well.

"If you're asking, it means you didn't hear it all then." It was more of a rationalization that she had spoken out loud, but Mark replied with a nod anyways. 'Well that's one embarrassing moment I was lucky enough to avoid.' She feared her sigh of relief was too loud, but he started talking again.

"I only caught the tail end when it looked like you two were going to start frantically slapping at each other. So are you going to answer my question?"

"A girl's got to have her secrets." 'And, boy, do I have them in spades.'

The two sat silently sipping their tea. It was a few moments before Buffy realized Mark was looking at her left arm with a scrutinizing look. It suddenly went to surprise and finally concern. "You're bleeding." She looked at it, now becoming aware of the small nick right below her shoulder.

"One of them must have gotten off a lucky shot." It was said barely above a whisper, but Mark registered the information. He didn't waste much time figuring it out however. Quickly jumping up, he proceeded to drag Buffy to the bathroom.

Pulling out a small towel and a few first aid supplies, he began his interrogation. "What happened?" He went to place the towel on her wound, but hesitated a bit before finally completing the action. 'Must be a bit phobic of blood. Don't blame him much.' She took it from him and started clearing the excess blood away. It revealed just a small cut. Nothing that she would ever worry about.

She wanted to skip this conversation. She didn't feel like going into explanation about her whole secret lifestyle. Mark noticed her pause and followed with another question. "One of who?"

He was clearly concerned for her, but she noticed the anger stressed in the last question. "It's nothing really. I just got into bit of a scuffle before I reached your place. Those oh so famous New York muggings."

His worry only escalated. While she began to bandage up the cut, he took her left hand into his. She smiled at the action. It was so simple, yet so meaningful.

Taking a moment, she noticed that this effected her mainly because nobody really showed her this kind of concern anymore. Sure she had friends that cared, but they knew better than to worry about a scratch like this. Hell, she was the girl that walked into Hell and back. This injury wouldn't even earn a scoff.

She was forced to blink back a few tears of happiness. Mark must have thought they were a reaction to her earlier encounter, because it was only a brief moment before he enveloped her in a tight embrace.

They stayed like that for awhile. It was Buffy who finally pulled away. She started to clean up the small mess that was made when she looked at Mark's face in the mirror. It was still etched in worry. She gave a small laugh. "It's ok Mark, really. I'm fine. This is nothing. You should see the people I fought." 'If they weren't dust clouds that is...' "I'm quite good at taking care of myself."

He must have sensed she was being sincere and calmed down to his normal self. Or what she assumed was his normal self. 'You really don't know what normal is for him. You've only known him for a few days.'

Back at the table, they shared a few conversations about various things from Mark filming everything to Buffy's positive integration with his friends. Except with the slight conundrum that was Maureen. Mark couldn't help but laugh. "She's a bit of a diva. Who knows what her problem was tonight."

It was at this point that Buffy noticed Mark going into sleepy mode. It was obvious that he wasn't going to ask her to leave, and she sure as hell wasn't going to stay here. 'Yeah, I'm starting to like the guy, but that would be way too fast.' So that left her with the option of gathering her stuff and leaving.

She made it to the sliding door when she realized Mark putting on his coat. "What are you doing?"

He looked at her, his shock expressed openly. "Walking you home. You don't expect me to let a beautiful girl walk the streets of New York alone at this time of night. Especially after what happened to you today."

She failed miserably at hiding the ever growing red on her cheeks. "That's really sweet, but I don't want to put you through the trouble." 'Plus I don't want to worry about you getting home safely...'

It took some time to convince him, but Buffy won her battle. On one condition. Mark handed her a piece of paper with numbers scribbled on it. "Call me when you make it back, ok?" She smiled and nodded. "And maybe later tomorrow as well."

'Well, at least that wasn't as awkward as before.' "Sure thing."

They caught each other in another hug by the door. Before breaking it this time, Buffy placed a chaste kiss on his cheek. "Goodnight Mark."

She closed the door behind her, checked that the hallway was empty, and did an 'I got the digits' dance before she started her trek home.

* * *

A/N: I think the Buffy/Rent crossover stories are starting to grow in number. Its nice to see. As much as I love Harry Potter to death (my name here is a statement to that), he's just been taking over far too much of this arena.

As always, thank you so much for the reviews. They keep me going, really. So keep on clicking that little purple button!

Disclaimer: I don't own (emotion, I) Rent. I don't own Buffy either.


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